The Risk of Endothelial Infection in Adults with Salmonella Bacteremia

Abstract

Arteritis and endocarditis are rare complications of salmonellosis. The diagnosis of such endothelial infections often requires invasive techniques. Frequently, the diagnosis is not established until the patient has an advanced stage of the disease or dies and postmortem examination is done. A few cures of salmonella arteritis have been achieved by surgery in combination with antibiotics (1–3), which suggests that earlier diagnosis and intervention might improve survival. The clinician must decide when the potential benefit of the invasive diagnostic procedures outweighs the risks. To ascertain which patients with known salmonella bacteremia are most likely to have arteritis and endocarditis, we